This invention relates to therapeutic devices, specifically to a therapeutic massager and a signal generator for such massager.
Electric and electromechanical therapy devices are intended to improve patient or user well-being, including relieving pain, promoting relaxation; accelerating recovery, and inducing desired states of consciousness.
Such therapy devices can be classified in three areas:
In the first area the devices deliver therapeutic signals which are modified or combined to increase therapeutic effectiveness. Exemplary devices are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,701 to Masaki (1989) shows a device which generates a varying therapeutic signal by combining two acoustical signals to produce a low frequency xe2x80x9cbeat frequencyxe2x80x9d signal which is applied acoustically to a patient to alter the frequency of the brain""s electrical signals. These changes reduce beta rhythm (14 to 20 Hz activity) to alpha rhythm (8 to 14 Hz), as measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,852 to Murtonen (1992) shows a device which generates a varying therapeutic signal and applies it to a human body through several speakers mounted in a chair. The applied audio energy provides phase angle variations throughout the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,438 to Gall (1994) shows a device which combines several recorded brain wave signals and delivers them to the subject through headphones. This sound is used to induce altered brainwave rhythms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,080 to Bick (1992) shows a device which adds distortion to an audio signal through an electronic xe2x80x9crobot voicexe2x80x9d type synthesizer. This sound is used to increase the effectiveness of hypnotic suggestion.
The first area also includes subliminal message systems such as audio music and sound systems, flickering light systems, and electrodermal systems which deliver complex signals to the body. While these therapy devices do provide a broader and more varying spectral distribution of signal frequencies, the resulting signals become familiar, and hence, predictable. Thus the body can anticipate them and filter them out. This predictability limits their effectiveness.
In the second area therapy devices use random noise for simulating signals observed in nature. Such devices are shown in the following: U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,616 to Samson (1989) shows a device which uses a white noise generator to simulate the sound of a mother going xe2x80x9csshhhhhxe2x80x9d to calm a baby. Another product which uses random noise lulls people to sleep with the sound of ocean waves or waterfalls created by white noise. Yet another product is a white noise generator for offices which increases background noise to make distracting noises less audible. Because the white noise is not made different from background noise, it simply adds to the ambient white noise which is produced from background sources such as fans in electronic equipment, air vents, running water, wind, and the blending of outdoor sounds. Thus, there is little therapeutic value to unshaped white noise beyond raising the ambient noise to decrease our auditory threshold to distracting noises.
In the third area, devices use an electronic feedback loop to simulate a signal in nature. An FDA-listed therapeutic massager, manufactured by China Healthways Institute of San Clemente, Calif., has been sold under the trademark INFRATONIC QGM for eight years and simulates the subsonic sound output from the hands of energy healers. This device, based on Chinese research, incorporates a small degree of noise in a resonating circuit in order to simulate a signal emitted from the hands of energy healers. A summary of this research was presented at the First World Conference for Academic Exchange of Medical Qigong. This summary is entitled xe2x80x9cMeasurement and Analysis of the Infrasonic Waves from the Emitted Qixe2x80x9d, Niu Xin, et al., Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1988.
This device incorporates a feedback loop including a noise generator and a high-pass/low-pass filter which approximates the shape and frequency band of the irregular waveform of the healers"" signal. A noise generator excites the non-linear filter feedback loop. This excitation prevents the signal from decaying or falling into obviously sinusoidal or otherwise repeating patterns. While this feedback loop does produce some randomness, the produced signal is dominated by the high-pass/low-pass filter system, and is thus dominated by the repeating modes of resonance which the filter supports. Much like a car with a fouled spark plug or a railroad train traveling over varying segments of track, the signal is highly repeatable with a small random component. While effective, the Infratonic QGM has considerable room for improvement because:
1) The circuit is dominated by the filter/feedback loop. Here, small variances in capacitors and other circuit parameters alter the modes of resonance from unit to unit. Thus, small variations in component value and function have strong influence on the output waveform. Thus output waveform varies considerably from unit to unit.
2) Attenuation of bandwidth is gradual. This circuit was designed to produce a signal between 4 and 16 Hz, peaking at around 10 Hz, and produces significant output outside of the range of Alpha, which is 8 to 13 Hz. This lack of precision in producing the desired frequency band limits effectiveness.
3) Amplitude is not controlled. High spikes of random noise occasionally overload the high-pass/low-pass filter and create transient spikes which result in current surges and cause the speaker to xe2x80x9cbottom outxe2x80x9d, creating unpleasant noises and undue wear on the equipment.
4) The circuit is dominated by the band-pass filter which favors repeating patterns in the output signal. If noise input is too low, or band-pass filter is too dominant, this signal slips into recognizably repeating patterns, and discrete frequencies dominate. Thus, broad spectrum frequency output is difficult to maintain.
5) While the signal produced by this device does contain some random noise, as do the therapeutic signals produced by many of the devices described above, a recognizable and therefore predictable pattern dominates. This predictable pattern limits the effectiveness of this device.
As reflected in the above prior art, although complexity, distortion, and randomness have been added to therapy devices, because of the predominantly predictable nature of these signals, the human body can anticipate them and filter them out, and thus they are considerably less than optimally effective.
Specific methods for producing a highly unpredictable signal not associated with therapeutic application are known, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,795 to Yamakawa (1996) shows a means of producing a randomly behaving signal.
In accordance with the present invention, a therapy device, in its preferred embodiment, incorporates a chaos signal generator into a therapeutic massager for the purpose of increased therapeutic effectiveness in such areas as pain management, inducing calm mental clarity, interrupting repeating thoughts and emotions, and enhancing states of human awareness, such as mental analysis and intuitive functioning, by applying specific frequency bands of a highly unpredictable chaotic signal.
Objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide an improved therapeutic stimulating device,
(b) to provide a therapeutic massager with an improved circuit which is capable of delivering a signal with a high degree of randomness without problems of circuit instability,
(c) to provide an improved therapeutic massager which provides higher effectiveness by delivering a more unpredictable signal which can not be anticipated by the human body and thus penetrates past the body""s defenses for deeper and more penetrating therapy (as defined below), and
(d) to provide a therapy device which can precisely produce a chaotic signal of virtually any desired frequency band, and produces minimal power outside that frequency band, allowing the application of specific frequency bands for different conditions.
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.